Cotton: Senate Run Motivated by Desire to Protect Freedom

Republican Rep. Tom Cotton said a desire to protect America's freedom motivated him to run for Congress in Arkansas, not a sense of entitlement, as Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor claimed.

"I believe that we're the greatest country on earth. We're the home of freedom. And, I wanted to go and protect our freedom overseas. That's why I served in the Army, and that's why I wanted to run for Congress in the first place," Cotton, who is running to unseat Pryor in the Senate, told "Fox & Friends" Thursday.

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Pryor said Wednesday Cotton felt entitled to win the contested Arkansas Senate seat because he had served in the military. Pryor said he thought it was a "sense of entitlement that [Cotton] gives off is that almost is like, 'I served my country. Therefore, lead me to the Senate.'"

Cotton, who has served as a Congressman since 2013, maintained he developed a thick skin after growing up on a farm and by serving in the military, and said he didn't get "offended by much." He said he was surprised Pryor didn't think there needed to be "more veterans in Congress."

"I think if we had more people in the Congress who were veterans, Congress might be a little more respected, just like our military is," he said.

Pryor is working to hang onto the Senate seat he has held for 25 years in a race that currently where Cotton has a slight edge, according to a poll by Real Clear Politics. Cotton maintained the leadership qualities he learned while in the military would serve him well in the Senate.

"You learn a lot more about leadership at Officer Candidate School and Ranger School at Ft. Benning [Ga.], and leading troops in the streets of Baghdad, than you learn in the halls of Congress," he said.